Apparatus for cleaning used bricks

ABSTRACT

An apparatus is described for cleaning the mortar and other protruding material from the surfaces of used building bricks. The apparatus has a perforate turntable with an expanded sheet metal lath removably supported thereon and substantially covering the turntable. The expanded sheet metal provides edges upon which the bricks are supported, so that these upstanding edges scrape the protruding material from the brick surfaces. An upstanding band surrounds the brick on the turntable to keep the bricks thereon and a stationary bar across the band keeps the bricks from traveling with the sheet metal lath.

[11] 3,831,577 [451 Aug. 27, 1974 APPARATUS FOR CLEANING USED BRICKS [76] Inventor: Rex Price, 6310 E. 6th Ave,

Spokane, Wash. 99206 22 1 Filed: Nov. 13, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 305,705

[52] US. Cl. 125/26, 29/81 T [51] Int. Cl 328d 1/00 [58] Field 01 Search 125/26; 51/128; 29/81 R, 29/81 G, 81.1, 78

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 612,667 10/1898 Krause 125/26 2,056,182 10/1936 Gardner 51/128 X 2,464,796 3/1949 Cushman 51/128 3,195,160 7/1965 Amsen 29/78 X 3,522,680 8/1970 Sarofeen 51/358 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 881,012 6/1953 Germany 51/128 853,805 11/1960 Great Britain 29/78 Primary Examiner-Harold D. Whitehead Attorney, Agent, or FirmWe11s, St. John & Roberts 1 57] ABSTRACT An apparatus is described for cleaning the mortar and other protruding material from the surfaces of used building bricks. The apparatus has a perforate turntable with an expanded sheet metal lath removably supported thereon and substantially covering the turntable. The expanded sheet metal provides edges upon which the bricks are supported, so that these upstanding edges scrape the protruding material from the brick surfaces. An upstanding band surrounds the brick on the turntable to keep the bricks thereon and a stationary bar across the band keeps the bricks from traveling with the sheet metal lath.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to apparatus for cleaning mortar from used bricks.

Numerous attempts have been made to devise equipment for machine cleaning the mortar'from used bricks so that the bricks may be reused. Examples of such devices are disclosed in the following US. Pat. Nos.:

612,667 Krause 779,224 Leeder 800,465 Moroney 863,190 LeBlanc 1,031,107 Cole 1,501,195 Bellalbero 3,631,846 Bambi. The LeBlanc US. Pat. No. 863,180 and the Krause US. Pat. No. 612,667 disclose apparatus in which the used bricks are placed on a turntable having upwardly projecting grinding teeth. The bricks are individually held in holes in a stationary cover plate to prevent the bricks from rotating with the turntable. Although such devices may be reasonably effective in removing the mortar from the bricks, they are unable to handle a reasonable number of bricks and more importantly are quite expensive to build and maintain. The teeth structures are rather expensive to construct and are thereby quite expensive to replace when worn.

One of the principal objects of this invention is to provide a turntable type brick cleaning device that is capable of cleaning the surfaces of a large number of bricks at one time.

An additional object of this invention is to provide a used brick cleaning apparatus that utilizes a very unique system for cleaning the mortar from the bricks as the bricks are supported on a sheet metal lath and relative rotation occurs between the lath and the bricks.

A further object of this invention is to provide a brick cleaning apparatus having a unique supporting and cleaning structure for engaging and chipping the mortar from the bricks.

An additional object of this invention is to provide a turntable type brick cleaning apparatus in which the supporting and cleaning structure is reversable and quite inexpensive and can be readily removed and re placed.

A further object of this invention is to provide an openwork supporting and cleaning sheet for the bricks, so that loose mortar falls through the sheet.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon the reading of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A preferred embodiment of this invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an apparatus for supporting and cleaning a plurality of used bricks to remove the mortar therefrom;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view taken from the right side in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the expanded sheet metal structure utilized to remove the mortar from the used bricks; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along line 55 in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Now referring in detail to the drawing, there is illustrated in FIG. 1, apparatus generally designated with the numeral 10 for cleaning or removing mortar from a plurality of used bricks 9. The apparatus includes a frame 11 having downwardly extending back legs 12 and 13 and a front leg 14. The apparatus is portable with the provision of rear wheels 16 supporting the back legs 12 and 13 respectively and a dolly wheel 17 supporting the front leg 14.

The apparatus includes a turntable 20 rotatably mounted on the frame 11 for rotation in a substantially horizontal orientation with respect to the frame. The turntable has a circular peripheral edge and a flat top surface 22 within the periphery 11. A plurality of holes 23 extend downwardly through the turntable from the top surface 22. The turntable is mounted on a vertically extending shaft 26, (FIG. 2). The shaft 26 is operatively connected to a drive train generally designated with the numeral 28. The drive train 28 includes a right angle gear box 30 directly connected to the shaft having an input shaft 31 at right angles to the shaft 26. A pulley 32 is mounted on the input shaft and connected by way of a belt 33 to a pulley 35 mounted on a motor 36. An idler pulley 36 (FIG. 2) engages the belt 33 to provide the proper tension in transmitting the rotational power from the motor 36 to the shaft 26.

One of the principal features of this invention is the provision of an expanded sheet metal layer to provide easily replaceable cutting edges on the turntable 20 for engaging the underside of the bricks 9. The cutting edges are provided by a sheet 40 of expanded metal that provides a plurality of diamond meshes 41 defined by peripheral strips or strands 42. An extremely important feature of this invention is the construction of the sheet of expanded metal in which each of the meshes 41 forms an edge 45 that extends upwardly for engaging the bottom of the brick and and edge 46 that extends downwardly for engaging the top flat surface 22 of the turntable to support the sheet slightly above the surface 22 and to enable mortar pieces and mortar dust to flow radially outward underneath and through the sheet 40 of expanded material to provide a selfcleaning arrangement. Preferably, sheet 40 should be a sheet of expanded metal that is normally utilized as concrete reinforcement, tread surface and for securing to wall studs and joists for providing support for plaster walls and ceilings. The sheet of expanded metal, although rather thin, forms excellent cutting structure (edges 45) for removing the mortar from the bottom of the brick surfaces and further provides depending edges 46 for supporting the body of the expanded sheet slightly above the flat surface 22 of the turntable to enable the removed mortar to flow radially outward and off the periphery 21 of the tumtable 20.

The depending edges 46 are symmetrical to the tooth edges 45 and, therefore may also be utilized as a tooth structure, simply by turning the sheet over on the flat top surface 22. This feature greatly reduces operational expenses by substantially doubling the abrasive life of the sheets.

The first expanded lath was invented by Mr. John G. Golding. The expanded sheet is made from sheet strips of thin, soft and tough steel by a mechanical process which pushes out or expands the metal into oblong meshes 41 and at the same time twists the cut strips or strands 42 to nearly right angles with the general surface of the sheet, forming the symmetrical edges 45 and 46. Expanded metal is manufactured from various gauge sheet material, according to intended use and, through experimentation, I have found that a fairly light gauge metal removes mortar from used brick more quickly than a thicker gauge. The light gauge material however wears considerably faster than heavy gauge material. Therefore, by heat treating the material, or by forming it from hard steel, an abrasive surface can be obtained having both long abrasive life and excellent cutting characteristics.

The sheet 40 of expanded metal is cut having a circular periphery 47 complementary to the turntable periphery 21. Additional means is provided to secure the sheet 40 to the turntable 20 so that the sheet 40 will rotate with the turntable 20. The securing means including strip elements 48 (FIG. that are cut and bent to extend downwardly through several of the holes 23 as illustrated in FIG. 5. When the sheet is to be turned over to utilize edges 46 as a cutting surface, the strips 48 may simply be bent toward edges 45.

The apparatus is provided with a circular rim or wall 50 positioned coaxially about the shaft 26 extending slightly above and coaxially outward from the peripheries 21 and 47. The rim 50 is positioned to prevent the bricks from moving radially off the turntable as the turntable is rotated. The rim 50 is supported by upwardly extending brackets 51. The rim 50 is supported a slight distance above the surface 22 forming a gap 56 (FIGS. 2 and 3) to enable the mortar particles to migrate radially outward on the turntable and be dispenscd from the apparatus through the gap 56.

The apparatus further includes a stop means 58 (FIG. I) for preventing the bricks from rotating with the turntable and to maintain the bricks substantially stationary as the turntable and sheet 40 are rotated to clean the bottom surfaces of the bricks. The stop means 58 includes an elongated bar 60 that extends diametrically across the turntable 50 with end 61 and end 62 affixed to the rim 50 at diametrically opposed locations. The bar 60 is quite thin so that it does not inhibit the mounting of a large number of bricks over the entire surface of the sheet 40. The stop means 58 provides means for preventing the bricks from rotating with response of the rotation of the turntable 20 without decreasing the area of the sheet 40.

In operation the weight ofthe brick provides the only downward force utilized to hold the lower brick surface against the abrasive surface; I have found that the weight ofany individual brick is not substantial enough, nor is the brick material soft enough to allow the cutting edges 45, 46 to remove material from the brick itself. Therefore once the mortar has been removed, the brick may ride freely on the abrasive surface for a sub-' stantial time without being further reduced enough in size to adversely affect theirre-usability. Being made of clay, these bricks wear away very slowly when pressed down on the cutting edges 45 or 46 only by their own weight spread over the entire surface. Mortar however provides a granular protrusion that carries the whole brick and is quickly cut away.

The apparatus is provided with a protective shield 64 that extends upward adjacent one end of the apparatus 10 for preventing mortar and the like from being propelled from the turntable against the engine. Likewise, a belt guard 65 extends over the belt 33 to prevent loose mortar and the like from interfering with the operation of the apparatus.

It should be understood that the above described embodiment is simply illustrative of the principles of this invention and numerous other embodiments may be readily devised by those skilled in the art without deviating therefrom. Therefore, only the following claims are intended to define this invention.

What I claim is:

1. An apparatus for cleaning mortar from the surfaces of used bricks, comprising:

a horizontal platform for supporting a plurality of bricks thereon;

a sheet of expanded metal releasably secured on the platform and having a plurality of sharp mesh edges for engaging the bottom surfaces of bricks supported on the platform;

a rim enclosing the area immediately over the platform to prevent the bricks from being thrown radially from the platform upon relative rotation between the platform and the bricks;

stop means preventing common rotation of the bricks and the platform; and

drive means operatively connected between the plat form and rim for effecting rotation of the platform and sheet of expanded metal relative to the bricks to rub the upwardly extending mesh edges of the sheet against the bottom surfaces of the brick.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said stop means comprises a bar connected to said rim extending diametrically across the platform immediately above the sheet of expanded metal in the path of the bricks supported on the platform.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim I wherein the rim is supported elevationally above the platform forming a gap therebetween to enable mortar removed from the bricks to migrate radially outward throughthe gap.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the platform is a turntable and the sheet of expanded metal includes strip elements that extend downwardly into holes provided through the turntable for securing the sheet of expanded metals to the turntable so that the sheet of expanded metal will rotate with the turntable.

used bricks. 

1. An apparatus for cleaning mortar from the surfaces of used bricks, comprising: a horizontal platform for supporting a plurality of bricks thereon; a sheet of expanded metal releasably secured on the platform and having a plurality of sharp mesh edges for engaging the bottom surfaces of bricks supported on the platform; a rim enclosing the area immediaTely over the platform to prevent the bricks from being thrown radially from the platform upon relative rotation between the platform and the bricks; stop means preventing common rotation of the bricks and the platform; and drive means operatively connected between the platform and rim for effecting rotation of the platform and sheet of expanded metal relative to the bricks to rub the upwardly extending mesh edges of the sheet against the bottom surfaces of the brick.
 2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said stop means comprises a bar connected to said rim extending diametrically across the platform immediately above the sheet of expanded metal in the path of the bricks supported on the platform.
 3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the rim is supported elevationally above the platform forming a gap therebetween to enable mortar removed from the bricks to migrate radially outward through the gap.
 4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the platform is a turntable and the sheet of expanded metal includes strip elements that extend downwardly into holes provided through the turntable for securing the sheet of expanded metals to the turntable so that the sheet of expanded metal will rotate with the turntable.
 5. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein said edges extend upwardly and downwardly in symmetry to define a first abrasive surface and a second abrasive surface and wherein the sheet is removable from the turntable to facilitate selective placement of either abrasive surface in a position to remove mortar from used bricks. 